Mathison is a diversity hiring platform focused on connecting talent and employees committed to inclusive hiring. I worked on promoting our webinar series focused on various topics around DEI and inclusive hiring for LGBTQIA and people with disabilities. I also updated and managed their social media channels. Through promoting their work and events, we were able to increase our followers and expose ourselves to new talent and employers who otherwise would not have heard about us. During my internship, I was able to increase our LinkedIn followers by 4.5x over the two months and expand our email list to reach a bigger audience to promote our mission.

I applied the skillsets I learned from the classroom and outside the classroom. In terms of classroom learning, I applied logical thinking and what I learned from my Entrepreneurship class to identify which angel investors I should advise Mathison to reach out to. Since I understood the process of how funds get raised and how to strategically approach investors, I was able to compile a list of angel investors and contributed to reaching $2 in seed funding. Outside of the classroom, Columbia also taught me to think outside the box and embrace the differences in students’ personal and professional backgrounds. Given the virtual setting of the internship, I applied this flexible approach to be open to the new opportunities that could arise from the internship going virtual. As a result, I was able to connect with colleagues and build friendships despite the time zone challenges (I was working from Seoul, whereas most of my colleagues were based in the United).

Some challenges I faced were navigating the internship while working remotely and in a different time zone. My company was very flexible with the time zone and were accommodating, which I greatly appreciated. However, it also meant I had to be more responsible for how I chose to spend my time and having deliverables ready. I also had to learn new skills, such as managing the company website through a new internet platform. There was a lot of trust and liberty on my part, which was somewhat scary but exciting at the same time. I took the time to familiarize myself with the assigned platform until I later felt comfortable with it. As for working in a different time zone (with a 13 hour difference), I set up a time with my supervisor during his day time and my night time. I would work on my projects during the day and gave him updates before I went to bed. Having a set time and scheduled meetings to catch up and get feedback was helpful to keep in check with my team and my assignments.

The goal for the summer was to go beyond my comfort zone and maximize my internship experience, virtual or not. I learned from this experience that while Zoom calls are not always fun and fall short compared to real life interaction, it’s still a great way to build new friendships. Outside of meetings, I arranged one-on-one calls with colleagues to get to know them on a more personal level. I could also sense their personality during our team meetings, since our meetings started with discussions on a different topic each time.

I also felt firsthand the importance of empathy. To show support for the Black Lives Matter social justice movement and also understand it, Mathison organized a book club. We read So You Want to Talk About Race and had a shared spreadsheet to keep track of pages or phrases that we wanted to discuss. I appreciated the open discussion, and it was a learning experience for me to not only bond with the team but also be reminded of why the work we are doing is so important and impactful.